IT seems like Parliament has been too busy for the past two months to address the passage of the long-anticipated Road Traffic Act (RTA).

Checks by Jamaica Observer‘s weekly Auto magazine yesterday showed that while the Senate passed the Bill with 161 amendments on May 11, the House of Representatives has been unable to schedule a closure to the debate, which would require approval of those amendments.

Incidentally, there were 131 amendments to the Bills during its passage through the House of Representatives.

There was no timeline for completion of the process yesterday, as nobody was in a position to say when the House of Representatives will be able to add its completion to the agenda. However, that is now unlikely for the rest of August as Parliament is now on a summer break, which had been delayed by the debate on Bills extending the states of emergency and the zones of special operations (ZOSO).

Last Thursday the National Road Safety Council (NRSC) attempted to put the issue in perspective at its mid-year press briefing at the Office of the Prime Minister in Kingston.

But all the NRSC could add to the discussion was the fact that there is still a need to reconcile the amendments approved by both Houses of Parliament.

However, it says that the Ministry of Transport and Mining is contemplating when various sections could be gazette and implemented in light of the delay.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/auto/traffic-bill-drags-on_139127